Knights roll into Olympic break on up note after beating Kings 4-1

LAS VEGAS — Bruce Cassidy’s not shy when it comes to moving  players up and down the lineup.

His latest? Bring Mark Stone back with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev.

The logic? Try and get some balance with his top six forwards and with Mitch Marner playing effectively at center and having Reilly Smith and Pavel Dorofeyev clicking with No. 93, Cassidy’s reuniting Barbashev and Stone with Eichel has paid off.

The line looked good in Wednesday’s 5-2 win over Vancouver and looked even better in Thursday’s 4-1 victory over Los Angeles at T-Mobile Arena as the Knights entered the Olympic break with back-to-back wins and a hold on first place in the Pacific Division with 68 points, four ahead of second-place Edmonton.

“He’s playing a little more of a direct game, he’s making good decisions with the puck and he’s been a little more physical," Cassidy said of Barbashev. “You’re going to go through stretches where you make plays and a guy gets a stick on it and then you try to make a play that’s not there and I think he went through a little of that.

“Now it’s happening. You’re seeing that line go. They’re making crisp passing plays and have a sense for where each other are and they’re finding open ice. That’s what’s happening for them right now.”

Barbashev said it was a matter of simplifying his game in order to get back on the top line.

“Sometimes you try to do too much and it doesn’t work,” he said. “Since Mark came back to the line we just tried to keep it simple, make plays when you have them. I think my game has been going the right way the last three or four games. When you’re struggling, it’s hard to find your game. I just tried to keep it simple and it seems to be working."
 
The bulk of the offense came over a 7:48 span in the first period as the Knights built a 4-0 lead on four consecutive shots against Anton Forsberg, survived a fight as rookie center Kai Uchacz got the worst of it after he squared off with the Kings’ 6-foot-6 Samuel Helenbius, then gave up a goal as Trevor Moore got one past Adin Hill to get the Kings on the board.

Hill, who was on the Canada roster at the 4 Nations but was not named to Canada’s Olympic roster, looked the best he has been since returning to the Knights’ lineup on Jan. 15 after missing nearly three months with a lower-body injury. He stopped 32 of 33 shots in winning his 100th career NHL game and Hill appeared more comfortable in his movement in the crease.

Of course, no Kings-Golden Knights game would be complete without a contribution from Anze Kopitar. The LA captain has been a thorn in Vegas’ side since Year One in 2017-18 and he had an assist on Moore’s goal in what was his final regular-season appearance at T-Mobile Arena, giving him 16 goals and 27 assists in 38 meetings against the Knights overall, the most of any opposing player in the nine-year history of the franchise. In 20 games at T-Mobile, Kopitar has eight goals and 13 assists. It was also Kopitar’s 1,300th career NHL point (446 goals, 854 assists).

Moore may be ready to take over from Kopitar as the Kings’ Knights slayer. He has 11 goals and 15 points in 24 games against Vegas.

The Kings, who traded for Artemi Panarin Wednesday, will have to wait until the season resumes Feb. 25 at Crypto.com Arena to see how much he can help them. Panarin was not in the lineup Thursday. Ironically, he will face the Knights in his first game in a Kings uniform.

They could’ve used him Thursday. With the offense sputtering and an unfortunate moment that saw winger Andrei Kuzmenko leave the game in the first period after taking a puck to the face but managed to return to the contest. Still, the Kings were unable to generate a whole lot.

Maybe it was the pending break that led to the lethargic effort offensively. But the reality is the Kings have been scuffling lately, dropping four of their last five and at 23-19-14, are still on the outside looking in for the playoffs, trailing Anaheim, the second wild card in the Western Conference, by three points.

The Knights? They go into the break with back-to-back wins and expectations they could get defenseman Brayden McNabb back after the Olympic break and possibly Brandon Saad and Colton Sissons. The challenge is can they refrain from any further injuries as the roster slowly returns to full health?

“I know our division isn’t as strong as the others when you look at the records but there’s still a lot of good teams there,” Cassidy said. “For whatever reason, each of us have had our ups and downs.

“I can only control what we do. We’ve been grinding the last 10 days and it looks like we turned the corner, then took a step back. The good news is we’re sitting on top of our division and we’ve had a couple of good wins. We’ve dealt with some adversity, but we’ve gotten a look at some young guys. Hopefully, some of our injured guys get back and give us a little juice.

“But yeah, we’ve got work to do if we want to meet our expectations of contending for the Stanley Cup. That’s the level we want to get back to and we have 25 games to do so.”